AIGA Dish Conference 2012

OverviewDish Conference is annual student-led design event that is hosted by AIGA, the Professional Association of Design's Nashville chapter. This yearly meeting lasts two days and features presentations by prominent graphic designers leading the field both locally and nationally.

We are very active in AIGA, both on a national level and a chapter level. The organization is one that we are strong promoters of and LaCroix Design Company appreciates the benefits that it brings to the design community, but also to the world. James was serving as chapter president and an adjunct professor of design at the time of this project. Therefore, the opportunity to be able to contribute our talents to making this event a success was very important to us.

ChallengeDespite already having a logo, the overall identity for Dish changes from year to year. This provides the opportunity to reinvent a visual concept to represent the theme for each conference. The previous year represented Dish as UFO and went with a space theme. The branding for the event needing to accommodate online marketing, posters, name tags, schedules, directional signage, presentation slides and a website. Additionally, everything needed to be completed within a short time frame.

SolutionWe interpreted the Dish theme in a more traditional sense and branded the event with a dinner table illustration. We found this fitting since the keynote speaker for the event was a nationally acclaimed illustrator. The website was built in an evening and represented our first attempt at responsive web design. A responsive solution allowed students, who often access the web on mobile devices, to have a successful experience with the site. Also, the majority of email marketing is now checked using a mobile device so the responsive sight allowed for a much more fluid transition from marketing to conversion.